We have just spent a couple of days in Uruguay, that small country tucked in between Argentina and Brazil.  The history is complex, as with so many South American countries. For example, there were both Spanish and Portuguese conquerors, and while Uruguay has a relatively small population of indigenous people (mostly Charrúa descendants) the vast […]

We have been pretty busy in the last several days; We made our first port of call stop in Argentina when we went to Ushuaia. Then we proceeded on to the Falkland Islands where  Britain fought Argentina in  a short war in 1982. Finally we stopped in Puerto Madryn. Argentina and Chile have an ongoing […]

As we make our way out of Chile, we are going through the Beagle Strait (yes, that Beagle Channel named after the boat Charles Darwin used). First though, we paid a visit to Punta Arenas. Punta Arenas claims to be the southernmost city in the world. Argentina begs to differ and cites Ushuaia, where we […]

The Pio XI Glacier, also known as the Brüggen Glacier, excluding the Antarctic, is the largest but not the only glacier in South America. It spans over 60 kilometers (or 37 miles). An exact count of the number of glaciers is hard to come by–but they are concentrated around the border of Chile and Argentina. The […]

It has been about a month since we embarked on the ship and the time is flying by. And soon we will be seeing the last of Chile. Over the last few days we visited both Puerto Montt, Chile and Castro, Chile.   The last place we plan on visiting in Chile  will be Punta […]

On Saturday we arrived in Coquimbo, Chile. We had a great tour to the Elqui Valley (pretty much due west from the coast).  Chile is a very long, skinny country, and in about 90 minutes our drive brought us to the foothills of the Andes, very close to the border with Argentina.   Grapes for […]

After leaving Peru we are heading down the west coast of Chile, headed for Coquimbo and then Santiago. On the way we  stopped off in the relatively minor port cities of Iquiqui and Antofagasta in Chile.  Nevertheless, these port cities were kind of interesting. Iquiqui had some fairly gritty sections as well as parts that […]

It is hard to believe that we have been on our voyage for 3 weeks already – the time is flying by.  We have had excellent presentations about the history, economics, politics and prospects of the places we have visited – in addition to specialized discussions concerning the Aztec civilization in Mexico, the Mayans in […]

It has been a busy few days. We visited two cities in Ecuador: Manta and Guayaquil. We had been to these cities before, but there was a notable difference. There were police officers everywhere. We actually had a police escort on one of the tours we took. Apparently crime has surged in Guayaquil over the […]